I. Rusted clay envelops milky limbs
    loosened into water like a cauldron of blood
    aqua and maroon, red and blue all at once
    bits of foam clump like white blood cells
    carrying a piece of each person who has stepped on the shores before
    through arteries of cold, velvet cream into the veins of each tree
    for now.

II. The dentist removes his hand from a trap of pearls and pink tongue,
    the shell opens and says it hates fishing, hates the bugs, hates the      noisy birds, hates the muggy water and the sludgy shores
    the dentist smiles and looks at his aquarium
            so bright, so clear, so blue
    each technicolor fish darts around on cue, a rehearsed dance under florescent lights
    a computer monitor glows, the animated river on screen cheerfully murmurs a tune
    a serene spring day in a bottle, in a box, in a crystallized projection of binary numbers
    the shell comments on how beautiful this world can be
    pays, hops in its gleaming SUV,and takes the tar river home.

III. The red cross.
     a plus. positive.
     clear tubes, shiny needles take crimson ribbons of blood
     "it is to help those who cannot find help alone."
      it leaks into plastic bags, on a plane to Africa
    
IV. A child sits on a riverbed, auburn mud
    slowly draining over white bone, more protein than plasma
    his arms and heart are full of new blood
    his water being spit from a paper cup
    bits of food and saliva down the swirly drain
    in a dentist's office near a man made river